A Best Buddy

A Best Buddy
Three days after Christmas, my heart broke in a way it hasn’t broken in some time.  I received a call from a man in the St. Saviour parking lot who said my cat, Panda, was dead.  I ran out to where he was standing, near the Crescent Garden. On my way running across the parking lot, I could see Panda’s motionless white and black body lying peacefully on the top of the hill, where he had collapsed after being hit on Plainfield Road.  

A Cat’s Mind
As I ran, I flashed back to the first months after we arrived at St. Saviour.  I saw him across Plainfield at the apartments.  After that, every couple of months, I would carry him down to Plainfield by the church, grab him by the scruff of the neck facing the road and whack him smartly on the head a couple of times, shouting “no!,” after which he would run as fast as he could back to the house.  I’ve never seen him over there since.  Clearly, down by the garden was not the same in a cat’s mind as up by church. 

His Beginnings 
I received Panda and his siblings as kittens three years ago in October from a friend in Wapakoneta.  She did a great job taming the feral kittens.  Hardly a hiss out of them when I picked them up.  Immediately, I made an appointment to surrender them to SICSA, an adoption shelter.  Having been removed from their mother too soon they nursed and kneaded on the tufts of the sherpa blanket that was their bed, something Panda still did before bed every night even as an adult.  I bathed them in the kitchen sink to kill fleas, brushed them and played with them. They were a joy.  I became particularly attached to Panda who had a black spot on his nose and a white tip on his tail.   
When it came time to take them to the shelter, I decided to adopt him myself since I put down my fourteen-year-old male a few years before.  Kit and Blackie, my two female cats, were used to having a guy around. 
 
A Great Life
He played his heart out, loved being outside and from the very first he traveled in the car with me up to the campground where I spend my days off.  He even made the sixteen-hour trip up to St. Catherine in MN every year for vacation without complaint.  

At St. Saviour he ran the church property and neighborhood across Myrtle, catching all the chipmunks and mice for two streets over!  A word that characterized his personality was “eager.”  His eyes always showed a readiness for the next adventure.  Interestingly, even though he was kind to my two female cats, he was also eager for the adventure that a fight offered, and he loved to fight.   I’m not even sure he was good at it because he always had scratches, cuts or bites, having more than half a dozen ID collars torn off and lost in scuffles.   

He was patient too, more than just on car trips.   Many days a week, he would walk next to me down the sidewalk from the rectory to the office knowing when we arrived he’d get some treats!  He tolerated being locked in the house at night sleeping at the other head of my queen-sized bed, even though he really wanted to be out patrolling the neighborhood.

A Call for Chow
If he had not returned for chow by nine or ten, which was most nights, I would go to the front porch, cup my hands and yell loudly into the neighborhood “Panda…chow!”  Without fail except on a few particularly beautiful summer nights, fifteen or thirty minutes later he would bust through the cat door ready for chow.  
 
Two Saturday night’s ago with a heavy and broken heart, I called “Panda…chow!,” knowing he wouldn’t be returning.  So, if you’re in the St. Saviour neighborhood some future evening after nine and hear someone calling “Panda…chow!” it will be me, remembering fondly and proclaiming the best furry buddy I ever had.

Christmas Season Ends
The Christmas Season ends this weekend.  At the same time, may we continue to give thanks to God in Jesus who makes all things new in all times and seasons.   Thanks again to all who helped make our celebration wonderful:  musicians, choirs, donators of poinsettias and decorators.  May we continue to notice new people among us and as we ourselves engage in parish life in greater ways, may we invite them to do the same!

Old, New Strategies for Lifelong Faith Formation
Over the past few weeks, in Mass petitions and announcements, I mentioned reading four or five pages a day from our Christmas Book, The Three Ordinary Voices of God.  I was surprised at how even some leaders in our parishes didn’t seem to know or respect this ancient strategy for faith growth in our Church.   For them, this can be something new!   The basic goal is to pray daily, especially by reading a little bit of scripture as well as a bit of a good Catholic book.  

Just a few pages a day, so that it might take months to read even that little Christmas book, will make for exponential growth in faith!  Thanks to those who do so!  Looking ahead, we will have another faith formation book for the Season of Lent.

Sincerely and with Love in Christ,
Fr. Pat